There are much better and cheaper options for Markerlights in the list. The Skysweep is not meant to be a Markerlight formation. There's no way you want to park them within 30cm of the enemy to light them up. That's what Recon Formations, Stealthsuits and Pathfinders are for.
The Skysweep is an AA/artillery (6x 90cm AT attacks) formation that just happens to have Markerlights

Believe me, I know all about Tau and Marines. I have played MANY games with my Tau against various Marine armies. Tau will always struggle against a good Marine player.
Thunderhawk/Terminator assaults will gut Crisis Suits and any formations where the Tau have infantry on the ground (rather than in their vehicles) making it hard to react accordingly.

Mind you, Thunderhawk/Terminator formations are relatively expensive and will, quite rightly do a bucket load of damage to most things they assault (except all Skimmer formations of course).

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just wandering why crisis use 2 transport slots in the manta and broadsides do not

A crisis unit is 3(2?) suits, while a broadside unit is a single suit. That's why broadsides are LVs and crisis are inf.

The stats in the list are designed so a Crisis suit stand represents 3 Crisis battlesuits and a Broadside stand represents a sigle Broadside suit.

What do you have on the board that's not a skimmer?

Why would you have your crisis suits on the ground? Or infantry on the ground at all for that matter...

Orcas are your friend.

The thunderhawk/terminator assault is 1/6 of of their force. kept in reserve until turn 3 it will lighten what you're fighting, brought in on turn 1 or 2, and it will hit what it hits, and then you can destroy it with relative ease... hell, it can play right into the "patient hunter" tau strategy even.

Crisis Suits with the Supreme Commander upgrade that start in an Orca is not s good actually. You need the Supreme Commander ability on the board to be able to use it, hence Crisis Suits starting on the table (ever rolled that 1 when you wanted to activate your AX-1-0's, you'll know what I mean).

If you start your Fire Warriors in their Devilfish then you are signing their death warrants (same with Pathfinders).

Orcas are fragile at best. Useful and game winning once or twice but a wise opponent will make life hard for fragile air transports. Orcas are more useful in a tournament where the opponents have to try and cater for all types of armies. In a campaign game (or a friendly game where the opponent knows you're playing Tau) Orcas will struggle to get their expensive payload to a useful area.

As I stated, I have played many games of Tau vs Marines - it is a terrible matchup for the Tau (as long as the Marine player knows his army).

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While I agree with you on Orca's. They are a bit fragile and IMHO overpriced. I don't really think Tau are that bad off against marines any more. In the last three times I have played marines I have won. I've even been able to make major errors in the game in deployment and still manage to win. I beginning to see marines having trouble coping with a well played and designed Tau list.

Orcas can weather any small AA fire that isn't overlapped, and they can get your payload down anywhere on the board.

The supreme commander not being on the board turn 1 can suck, but it's not the end of the world.

In tournament play, that's where the balance lies, everything is based off of that balance, and you can't use narrative play as a counter to balanced tournament lists...

Tau can outmaneuver even the best Marine players with ease. I rarely have much trouble against them.

Amended the first post of this thread to have the quick reference sheets as well as the army list, just a house keeping exercise.

Just wanted to give some comments from my experiences so far - I have had a few test games and while not that experienced with the tau in epic I have played the system quite a bit (mostly as Guard).

CORE:
Crisis - love the way they play. Perfect so far as I can tell. A little puzzled why the formation is more than the sum of its parts (I don't recall that anywhere else, but they seem worth it).

Fire Warriors - seemed a bit strong at first, but it did occur that without Devilfish they can't deal with vehicles well so making them specialist anti-infantry seems right. And I like the fact they're tricky to use to maximum effect by themselves.

Devilfish - not exciting, but as they should be.

SUPPORT:
Hammerheads - half as resiliant as a Leman Russ but twice the utility - I can live with that. I still think the Railgun AT seems a bit weak but they're useable. I would personally like to have the option of units up to 8.

Broadsides - seem to resiliant in CC - I would prefer a single better save so they were more scared of Macro weapons. 1 BS should not be harder to kill in CC than 3 Crisis.

Kroot - don't have any. Look alright.

Pathfinders - cool as - perfect.

Recon - don't have any. (personally would like to see the option of the unit size drop to match the Forge World pack as it will cost me £20 for a squadron, but thats less a balance and more practical thing)

Skysweep - agree with the cost change in 6.5.

Stealth - don't seem very stealthy to me. Also agree with the calls for Init 1+ as "Lone Wolves" should be more able to act under fire. Stat wise they're great.

UPGRADES:
Bonded team - invaluable.

Broadsides - Don't use. I don't like having the FW in a building and them standing outside. Think thats just me though .

Commander - Both fair. (I only have enough Crisis for one formation so haven't used the Shas'el).

Crisis - great upgrade. Surprised Fire Warriors can't have them - is there a reason for that?

Ethereal - haven't used.

Fire Warriors - perfect.

Gun Drones - haven't used. I don't have a strong opinion either way on the expendable suggestion personally. I do feel they should be more a part of the Tau army than either 40K or Epic make it, as they are rarely seen (in my experience) as stand alone formations in either system. Stats look fine.

Hammerheads - preferred the old option of 1-4 @ 50 points each. I don't see it as game breaking in any way and it acts as a nice points filler/helps with spare models.

Kroot stuff - all looks peachy but I haven't played.

Pathfinders - again, perfect.

Skyray - at first it seemed expensive, but they are worth it.

AIROSPACE:
I haven't used any of this yet - will add impressions as I get them.

Special Rules all work well, much better than the first version I looked at (4.something)

So thats another perspective from a (relatively) new Tau player. Hope you get something out of reading it, even if you disagree.
I also want to say I think the job on the list overall is fantastic - they are a joy to play and are a real change to the other armies I have used or played against. I am struggling against War Engines a little without fliers but at least they're still available.

May be a silly question or one that was asked elsewhere but how can the Tigersharks transport Drones when there is no gun drone formation?

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You can take a Drone formation as an upgrade for the Tigersharks for 100pts.

So that would be the only way to take a gun drone formation then?

_________________
author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Yes

We got a game in with the 6.4 list. Tau vs. Elysians - a classic struggle. I'll post a picture laden batrep as soon as I can - possibly today.

_________________
author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.